Klarinet Archive - Posting 000794.txt from 2000/11

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: Re: [kl] Interpreting versus playing
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2000 14:31:08 -0500

<><> Tony Pay wrote:
If you do 'just what you want' as a student, after a bit, your teacher
will throw you out for not being serious, regardless of your arguments
that you are providing a 'sincere and genuine response' to the written
music. Why exactly is this?

Tony, I assume that we can eliminate truly ridiculous things from
this discussion. For example, we're not discussing what a teacher
should or would do if I announced that Mozart sounds better when all
eighth notes are played as half notes.
Also, I agree that expert players are correct more often than not.
When my teacher says to me: "Listen to this, and tell me if you think
it sounds better", usually I am forced to agree that it does sound
better. Therefore I try to play the same way myself.

However when we move beyond the stages that I've described above, I
wouldn't want a teacher who told me, "My interpretation is the only
acceptable interpretation, and I know because I spoke with Stravinsky
when he was still alive." My instructor might know accurately what
Stravinsky's preference was, and if I was trying to earn my living with
music, I might need to play it Stravinsky's way in order to survive.
But when I'm playing for my own pleasure, then it's *my* mind and
*my* feelings and *my* response! Not Mr. Stravinsky's.
Ditto if I'm performing. If the audience walks out, then I have a
decision to make. Why am I performing? Is receiving applause or
money sufficient reason to change my style? (My answer is "no" right
now. This may change when and if I develop enough skill to go out
there and seek an audience.)

I have absolutely no problem with the fact that you want to play
(for example) Mozart in an historically accurate way. In fact, it
happens that I like your Mozart concerto recording better than any of
the others that I've heard (as I posted a few months ago). Whether
this means that it's you or Mozart who knows best how to play the
music.... well, I'll leave this up to you.

Again, I'm not saying that the composer's way (when known) is
necessarily wrong for me. But I violently object to the thought that
always creeps into this topic -- namely, that the performer should place
the composer's intent above all else. If the composer persuades me
through the music that he or she wrote, that's fine. More often than
not, once the composer's intent is shown to me, I am convinced.
But it's still *my* mind and *my* feelings and *my* response to the
music that motivate me to play. I truly believe that an audience does
not want to hear a canned version of any piece of music. They want to
hear the artist's response to it, they want it to 'live', and they value
their own response as well. Cheers and praise to the composer for
writing music that gives us pleasure, regardless of whether we play it
or we listen to someone else play it. But you simply cannot eliminate
the feelings and emotings of the performer from the equation.

Would you really want to perform if other people performed exactly
the same way?

Cheers,
Bill

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